Keg



G. D. PEET Dec. l2, 1939.

KEG

1938 2 Sheets--Sheetv l Filed Jan. 18,

INVENTOR 7e/'afd ze BY *w #W6/WM ATTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 G. D. PEETKEG f Filed Jan. 123, 1938 Dec. l2, 1939.

lNvENToR @arda/j ee r/M ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 12, 1939 UNITED STATESATENT OFFICE KEG Application January 18, 1938, Serial No. 185,504

10 Claims.

My present invention is concerned with transportation beer kegs orbarrels, and more especially with such kegs as are intended not only toserve as dispensing containers but also to cool and maintain the brewcool within the interior thereof by the circulation of cooling iiuidtherethrough.

The keg structure of the present invention while adapted for other uses,is more especially intended for use as the keg element in theinstallation and method described and claimed in the prior Patent No.2,051,013, issued August 11, 1936, to Herman E. Schulse.

Among the objects of the invention are to proi vide a keg of the abovetype having installed therein a cooling unit of surface area suflicientto be efficacious even with the use of water as the ycooling medium,which shall be free from the course of the racking or lling tube used inlling the keg and from that of the draft tube used in drawing therefrom,and which cooling unit is yet readily removable for inspection, withoutthe need for partly or wholly disassembling the keg structure.

Another object is to provide a keg of the above type in which the coilthough readily removable as and for the purpose indicated, is yetinherentlyso securely positioned within the keg that it is protectedagainst injury even under the most severe conditions of mechanical shockencountered in practical use.

In the accompanying drawings in which are shown one or more of variouspossible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a View in longitudinal cross-section illustrating the mode ofintroducing the cooling coil into the keg, y

Fig. 2 is a View in longitudinal cross-section of the completelyassembled keg, showing a modiiication in the cooling coil construction,

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan View of the cooling coil shown in the embodimentof Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 2 showing another modification,

a side wall i2 made of staves preventing crozesv I 3 lodging the headsand tightened thereabout by the usual keg hoops I4. The keg has theusual bung hole I5 in its bilge through which the `maintained closed bythe usual bung conventional racking or filling tube (not shown) isinserted in charging the keg with beer` at the brewery, said hole beingclosed after filling and (not shown). In the head of the keg isillustratively "5 f shown a conventional tap bush Hi, disposed laterallyof Jrhe diametral plane through bung hole I5 to accommodate a draft rod(not shown) and the conventional instrumentalities for tightening n thesame in place. 10.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 the upper head has a circular openingIl therein, preferably lined with a metal bushing i8 and also laterallyof the diametral plane through bung hole l5. K solid metal plug I9 withan appropriate pipe thread 2G and with depressions 2l by means of whichit may be screwed home byan appropriate tool.

The plug i9 carries the cooling conduit, preferably in the form of ahelical coil 22 aflixed at its upper end in the lower face of said plug.In the embodiment shown there is mounted within said helical coil 22another helical coil 23 of a tube or" smaller diameter, with its walls,25 spaced therefrom. 'Inner coil 23 extends practically but not quiteto the'lower end of the outer coil, which lower end is closed by a plug25 which may be Vremovable. The upper end of coil 23 communicates withbore 28 through the'thickness ,3 0 of plug i9, andthe upper end of coil22 communicates with oblique bore 29 through said plug.

To afford an effective cooling area, sufciently large to permit the useofl chilled water as the cooling agency and yet speedily to bring the`35 temperature of beer in the keg when in a warm bar room down todrinking temperature, the cooling coil is made of large surfacearea. Tothis end its diameter is made considerably larger than that of the plugIS and its mounting L40. bushing i8. As applied to a keg of conventionaldimensions, having a capacity of 151/2 gallons and a head 1% inchesthick, the outer cooling conduit'is desirably of metal tubing having anouter diameter of inch, conformed into a .45 helix of live inches outerdiameter and with a gap between consecutive convolutions of tw'o inches.rIhe relatively large ve --inch coil described admits of being insertedthrough the keg head, though the mounting bushing hole i8 -.50 thereforbe only three inches in diameter. A much larger hole it is noted woulddetract too greatly from the strength of the keg head. As shown in Fig.l, when the coil is inserted obliquely through the bushing i8 the large'diam- 15.5A

Said bushing is closed by a removable '15.`

eter of the coil extends obliquely from below the bushing at one pointto above the bushing at the diametrically opposite point. The coil pitchdistance is greater than the thickness of the head. so that nodistortion in the coil is necessary in inserting the same, by a screwingor 'threading action as suggested in Fig. 1.

In a preferred embodiment as best shown in Fig. 1 the helical coil isnot only of diameter considerably greater than that of the bushing, asset forth, but in uncompressed condition is also of length considerablygreater than the distance between the two heads of the keg into which itis to be inserted. As appears clear from comparison of Fig. 1 and Fig.2, after the lower end of coil 22 reaches the lower head Il] the furtherthreading or screwing through bushing I8, results in bringing the turnswithin the keg more closely together, and as the plug I9 is threadedhome the longer helical coil assumes a position substantiallylongitudinally, rather than obliquely between the two heads of the keg.The helical coil, (desirably of about seven and one-half (7l/2)convolutions) thus installed and thereby compressed as set forth, exertsresilient pressure against the two heads and is resiliently positionedagainst displacement or vibrational strain even under the most severemechanical shocks to which the keg may be subjected in the course ofhandling in the brewery and in transportation between the brewery andthe taproom for delivery and return of the empty kegs.

The plug I9 and its bushing I8 being disposed laterally of the diametralplane through bung hole I5, it is seen that the cooling coil 22 asinstalled in nowise interferes with the filling of the keg by the usualracking instrumentalities, nor does it interfere with the insertion ofthe conventional draft rod through the tap bush i6. Nor does it in anywise interfere with the inspection, cleaning or repitching of the keg.In fact the coil being readily removable from the keg by unscrewing theplug i3, inspection of said coil is facilitated to determine the needfor repitching and the adequacy of the pitch covering, the cooling coilbeing of course reinstalled in the manner previously set forth, prior tofilling the keg.

The cooling coil as set forth when made of inch tubing and composed of'l1/2 turns of ve inch outer diameter, presents an outer surface area f236 square inches. With the use of chilled water circulated through theouter pipe 22 and returned through the inner pipe 23 or in the oppositedirection if desired, beer at 70 F. in a warm room is ready to bedispensed at drinking temperature of 42 F. after an interval of lessthan two hours.

The volume occupied by the cooling coil as disclosed is only 36 cubicinches which is well within the range of permissible variation from the151/2 gallon capacity of the standard half barrel or keg. However itwould be easy to afford compensating increase in the volumetric capacityof the keg should this be desired, in any of various manners set forthin the Schulse Patent No. 2,051,013.

The embodiment of Fig. 2 is generally similar to that of Fig. 1 but thefeed and return pipes 22 and 23 respectively, instead of being arrangedconcentrically onev within the other, are disposed in side-by-siderelation with their lower or communicating ends connected together by areverse U-turn illustratively a U-tting as at 30.

The embodiment of Fig. 4 resembles quite closely that of Fig. 1 with thesole difference, that the cooling coil unit, which as in Fig. 1 isillustratively made up of an outer pipe 224 and an inner pipe 234, ismade of a plurality of convolutions 32 near the upper end, which are ofhard temper, the remaining turns 33, preferably greater in number beingannealed. As a consequence, the softer lower turns 33 which in theuncompressed condition of the coil have preferably the same pitch as thehardened turns 32 will be compressed to a considerably greater extentdue to their lesser stiffness when in place as shown in Fig. 4.Accordingly the major part of the cooling effect will be near the bottomof the keg where it is desired, since the brew is drawn from thatregion.

While it might be possible to anneal the lower end of a coil madeexactly as shown in Fig. 1, though with a greater number of turns asindicated in Fig. 4, it is ordinarily preferable to make the hardtempered convolutions 32 of the inner and outer tube as a unit separatefrom that of the lower annealed coil 33 and to connect both the innerand outer tube elements by means of an appropriate coupling 3l. Theconcentration of the major cooling effect near the bottom may similarlybe carried out with the use of feed and return coils in side-by-siderelation as in Fig. 2.

In the embodiment of Fig. 5 the upper coil unit 32 is relativelythick-walled tubing 3S say of 5/3 inch tubing with wall thickness of.047 inch. The lower coil unit 33 might be much thinner, say of inchtubing 31 with wall thickness of .020 inch. Said tube elements might beconnected by a coupling 3i. Obviously the thinner tube when of the samematerial flexes considerably more readily than the thicker tube so thatwhen the tube made as shown in Fig. 5 is inserted in the keg, the lowerturns will be spaced more closely than the upper turns, with theconcentration of cooling effect shown in Fig. i as applied to the tubeshown in Fig. 2.

Another way of causing the turns to become more closely spaced nea-r thebottom of the keg than near the top, is to make the former of moreflexible metal, say of soft silver plated brass, than the latter, whichmight be of stainless steel.

In the embodiment of Fig. 6 the concentration of cooling effect near thebottom of the keg is effected in a unitary coil assembly which need nothave a coupling connection between the more and the less flexibleportions such as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. In this embodiment the unitarytube assembly made up of concentric tubes such as shown in Fig. 1, orlaterally juxtaposed tubes such as shown in Fig. 2, is turned into anupper unit 326 of relatively small diameter convolutions, and a lowerunit 336 of much greater diameter convolutions. Illustratively the upperunit 326 might have three convolutions of outer diameter of 31/2 incheswhile the lower unit 336 might have four t0 six turns, each having anouter diameter as great as 8 inches, which in uncompressed conditionmight be spaced from each other by a distance as much as 3% inches.Manifestly the large diameter tube may readily be inserted by athreading action through the small bushing |86, as may also the smallerturns 325 whose diameter is but little larger than that of said bushing.In place, the relatively flexible large diameter portion of the coilwill have been compressed so that the distance between successiveconvolutions is only 1% inches with great concentration of coolingeffect near the bottom of the keg, while the upper section 32S,inherently many times as 75 lil stiff by reason of its smaller diameter,than the lower section, will have a greater spacing between convolutionsof 2 inches.

In this embodiment the diameter of section 326 is so selected that byreason of its stiffness relative to the large diameter section 336 thelatter lies wholly below the bilge bung hole 56 and accordingly while itcrosses the longitudinal plane through said bung bushing hole, it is yetwholly therebelow and accordingly quite free from interference with theracking or lling tube.

It is understood that the otherwise vconventional kegs of any or allbreweries might if desired be made with the bushing i8 and equipped witha closure plug I9 devoid of a cooling coil, where the keg is to be usedwith the ordinary systems of the art prior to Schulse Patent No.2,051,013. Said plug would be replaced by the similar plug equipped withthe cooling coil in any of the embodiments shown, where beer is to bedelivered to tap rooms equipped with installations according to saidSchulse patent; Thus the brewer with one and the same stock of kegs canreadily make the same up with cooling units where these are required.

It is of course understood that the invention while illustratively shownapplied to a wooden keg is also applicable to metal keg structures.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention and especiallyof the cooling element thereof could be made without departing from thescope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in theabove description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. f

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

l. A combined transportation and cooling keg having heads, a fillingbung-hole between said heads and a draft outlet in one of said heads,and equipped with a helical cooling coil attached near its upper endwith respect to the upper head and of normal length greater than thedistance between the heads, thereby to exert pressure resilientlyagainst the heads, said cooling coil being located wholly to one side ofthe lling bung hole to clear the racking tube used in filling.

2. A combined transportation and cooling keg having a filling bung holeand a draft outlet and equipped with a cooling unit therein extendinglongitudinally thereof, said unit having a dimension larger than a holein the head of the keg through which it may be progressively introduced,the cooling unit being of greater flexibility nearer its lower part thannearer its upper part and of length greater than the height of the kegprior to insertion thereof, whereby when installed it will present themajor cooling effect near the bottom of the keg.

3. In a combined shipping and transportation keg having a lling bunghole and a draft outlet, a removable plug in one head, a cooling conduitcarried by said plug, said unit comprising a helical inlet coil, ahelical return coil, both opening` through said plug, said coils havingconvolutions near said plug of relatively greater stiffness and theremaining convolutions of relatively greater` flexibility, the length ofsaid helical coils prior to insertion in the keg being considerablygreater than the distance between the heads of the keg,

the normal distance between convolutions being greater than thethickness of the head, whereby after threading the coil through theaperture into the head and afxing the carrying plug thereto, the majorcooling effect will be concentrated near the lower end of the keg.

4. The combination recited in claim 3 in which the cooling unit includesa series of upper turns of relatively hard temper, a series of lowerturns that are annealed and therefore are more flexible. v

5. The combination recited in claim 3 in which the upper turns are ofrelatively thick-walled tubing and corresponding stiffness and the lowerturns of thinner-walled tubing andgreater flexibility.

6. The combination recited in claim 3 in which the upper convolutionsare of relatively stiff metal and the lower convolutions of relativelyiiexible metal.

7. The combination recited-in claim 3 in which the upper turns of the.feed coil are of relatively smaller diameter and the lower turnsthereof of considerably greater diameter and therefore of greaterexibility.

8. A combined transportation and cooling keg having a lling bung and adraft outlet, a cooling unit insertible through a small opening in thehead of the pre-assembled keg, said unit including closely associatedinlet and outlet pipes conformed as a helix, the lower convolutions ofwhich are of large diameter, the upper convolutions of relatively smalldiameter, the latter diameter being selected to afford stiffnessrelative to the flexibility of the lower convolutions, the

lnormal length of the unit being greater than the distance between theheads of the keg and the relative lengths' of the large and smalldiameter portions of the helix being such that when the cooling unit isinstalled in the keg the smaller convolutions extend to the level of thefilling bung and the larger convolutions are wholly below said llingbung, thereby to clear the racking tube used in filling the keg.

9. The combination recited in claim 8 in which the upper small diametersection of the cooling unit comprises approximately three turns of 31/2inches outer diameter and the lower section approximately four to sixturns of 8 inches outer diameter, whereby in the assembled unit thedistance between convolutions of the upper or smaller diameter sectionis 2 inches and between the lower or larger convolutions is in the orderof 1% inches.

10. A combined shipping and transportation keg having a lling bung holeand a draft outlet and a cooling unit removably mounted therein, saidunit comprising a helical cooling coil having a mounting plug removablyaixed in an opening inA the upper end and being wholly at one side ofthe axial plane through the bung hole ero and being of diameterconsiderably greater thanV f that of said opening Aand less than that ofsaid keg and adapted to be introduced by threading the same obliquelythrough said opening, said cooling coil being of normal length greaterthan the distance between the keg heads assuming a positionlongitudinally of the keg when the carry- .ing plug thereof is affixedto the keg head, thereby to exert resilient pressure against said headswhen installed in place.

l GERALD D. PEET.

